Cambridge IGCSE History
The 20th Century: International Relations since 1919
To what extent was the League of Nations a success?
Dr. John Levan Bernhart, Ph.D.
Framing Questions
 What
were the strengths and weaknesses of the League’s structure and
organization? What was the work of the League’s agencies? What was
the League’s humanitarian work?
 How far did weaknesses in the League’s organization make failure
inevitable?
 How successful was the League in the 1920s? What were the League’s
successes and failures in peacekeeping during the 1920s?
 What was the impact of the World Depression on the work of the
League after 1929? How far did the Depression make the work of the
League more difficult?
 How successful was the League in the 1930s? What were the failures
of the League in the 1930s, including Manchuria and Abyssinia.
THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS
Woodrow Wilson—28th President of the USA
 Woodrow
Wilson, a conservative
Liberal historian and political
scientist, supported the interests
of the industrial elite by co-opting
the progressive movement. In
The State (1889), Wilson wrote
that “in politics nothing radically
novel may safely be attempted.”
Wilson urged “slow and gradual
change,” and he was “generally
hostile” to labor. He thought
Populists (farmers and workers
hoping to improve their lives) had
“crude and ignorant minds.”
 Before
becoming the twentyeighth President of the USA,
Wilson served as President of
Princeton University and
Governor of New Jersey.
WOODROW WILSON
 Wilson
was openly sexist,
believing that women “must
supplement man’s life.”
 Wilson defended the historical
enslavement of Africans in the
American South, claiming
Southerners had “absolutely
nothing to apologize for.”
 Wilson was openly racist towards
Italians, Hungarians, and Poles,
believing in the superiority of the
“English race.”
 Wilson was tyrannical towards
workers who demanded more
than his paternalism, hoping to
stamp out Bolshevism.
Wilson on ‘Open Door’
Imperialism
“Concessions obtained by financiers
must be safeguarded by ministers of
state, even if the sovereignty of
unwilling nations be outraged in the
process….the doors of the nations
which are closed must be battered
down.” (1907)
 “Our industries have expanded to such
a point that they will burst their jackets if
they cannot find a free outlet to the
markets of the world. Our domestic
markets no longer suffice. We need
foreign markets.” (1912)
 I support “the righteous conquest of
foreign markets.” (1914)

Wilson’s League of Nations
 The
consortium of European
great powers, with its secret
diplomacy and colonial barriers
to trade, frustrated Wilson.
 Wilson demanded a League of
Nations, a community of
independent states in which
there would be public negotiation
of open covenants. Through the
League of Nations, disagreement
would be resolved through
peaceful, democratic means and
disarmament would be possible.
 The
British and French naturally
opposed Wilson.
 After the Bolsheviks released the
secret wartime treaties in which
the Allies had divided up colonial
territory, Britain and France
accepted the idea of a League of
Nations as a means of damage
limitation. Britain and France
expanded their empires after the
war under the guise of the
mandate system of the League
of Nations.
 While
Wilson succeeded in
winning the support of Britain
and France for the League of
Nations, he was unable to
persuade his domestic political
opponents. The US Senate
refused to ratify the Treaty of
Versailles. Consequently, the
USA did not join the League of
Nations.
 Without the participation of the
USA, the League of Nations was
without purpose, almost a
complete failure (with the
exception of fact-finding missions
and statistics gathering).
 The
League’s one success was
the peaceful settlement of a
minor dispute between Finland
and Sweden over the Åland
Islands, Finnish territory
inhabited by a Swedish-speaking
population.
HANDLING OF THE MATTER IN THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS
F. RACKWITZ (1931)
A Pro-Corporate Alternative to Bolshevism
“The League of Nations has its roots in a
popular support far deeper and firmer than
shifting governments. To the peasant in
France, with the horror of the war seared
in his memory, it represents the symbol of
a new hope. To the worker, the League's
labor office, under the leadership of Albert
Thomas, is the promise of a better fortune.
The League stands for disarmament, for
peace, for international justice, for the
protection of backward peoples, for a
better standard of living, for the relief of
suffering, for the fight against disease, and
for all the other forward-looking policies
bound up in the longings of mankind for a
better world—policies which the people
everywhere in Europe, as distinguished
from their governments and leaders, are
unwaveringly supporting. The people
understand the League; at least they know
what it aims to accomplish.”
—Raymond B. Fosdick (1920)
RAYMOND B.
FOSDICK, UNDERSECRETARY
GENERAL OF THE
LEAGUE OF NATIONS
AND HEAD OF JOHN
D. ROCKEFELLER,
JR.’S BUREAU OF
SOCIAL HYGIENE
Lenin’s “Thieves’ Kitchen”
“The USSR is not a member of the
League of Nations and does not
participate in its work, because the USSR
is not prepared to share the responsibility
for the imperialist policy of the League of
Nations, for the ‘mandates’ which are
distributed by the League for the
exploitation and oppression of the colonial
countries, for the war preparations and
military alliances which are covered and
sanctified by the League, preparations
which must inevitably lead to imperialist
war. The USSR does not participate in the
work of the League because the USSR is
fighting with all its energy against all
preparations for imperialist war. The
USSR is not prepared to become a part of
that camouflage for imperialist
machinations represented by the League
of Nations. The League is the rendezvous
of the imperialist leaders who settle their
business there behind the scenes. The
subjects about which the League speaks
officially, are nothing but empty phrases
intended to deceive the workers. The
business carried on by the imperialist ringleaders behind the scenes, that is the
actual work of imperialism which the
eloquent speakers of the League of
Nations hypocritically cloak.”
—Josef Stalin (13 November 1927)
Prospects of the League of Nations
“THE FLOWER,” THE STAR
(11 NOVEMBER 1919)
DAVID LOW
“OVERWEIGHTED,” PUNCH
(26 MARCH 1919)
PRESIDENT WILSON: “HERE’S YOUR OLIVE
BRANCH. NOW GET BUSY.”
DOVE OF PEACE: “OF COURSE I WANT TO PLEASE
EVERYBODY; BUT ISN’T THIS A BIT THICK?”
The Covenant of the League of Nations
 The
League’s member states
agreed to abide by the 26
Articles of the Covenant, which
required members to uphold the
Treaty of Versailles, to disarm “to
the lowest point consistent with
domestic safety,” and to “respect
and preserve as against external
aggression” the territorial
integrity of other members.
Additionally, members were
required to submit complaints for
arbitration or judicial inquiry
before going to war.
 The
Covenant, however, did not
provide the League with the
power to enforce its decisions.
WILSON
READING
DRAFT OF THE
COVENANT
(14 FEBRUARY
1919)
 The
League was limited to
issuing condemnations and
economic sanctions that in
practice proved impossible to
implement.
 Particularly, France and Japan
were critical of the Covenant.
France, fearing Germany,
wanted the League to maintain
an international army to enforce
its decisions. Britain, an imperial
rival of the French, did not
support the French position, and
the Constitution of the USA
allowed only the US Congress to
 declare
war, so the USA rejected
the French proposal as well.
 Japan sought a clause upholding
the principle of racial equality,
and a vote on a motion to
support the “equality of nations
and the just treatment of their
nationals” passed by an 11 to 8
margin. The USA objected
strongly to the idea of racial
equality, demanding that the
rights of the minority voters
trumped those of the majority.
Officially, the League of Nations
did not support racial equality.
The League in the Face of Militarism
CAREY ORR, “REAR VIEW”
LITERARY DIGEST (30 AUGUST 1919)
BERNARD PATRIDGE, “MORAL SUASION”
PUNCH (28 JULY 1920)
THE RABBIT: “MY OFFENSIVE EQUIPMENT BEING
PRACTICALLY NIL, IT REMAINS FOR ME TO
FASCINATE HIM WITH THE POWER OF MY EYE.”
The Structure of the League of Nations
Assembly
—the annual conference of all League
member states
—decisions had to be unanimous
—decided on the organization’s policies
Conferences, Committees,
and Commissions
—created to address specific
issues, including health,
slavery, refugees, and the
oversight of mandates
Council
—met four times per year and during crises
—four permanent members and four (later
nine) non-permanent members
—settled international disputes
—each permanent member had a veto
Secretariat
—carried out the day-to-day work of the League
—wrote annual reports on the work of the League
Permanent Court of International Justice
—decided border disputes
—provided legal advice
—had no enforcement power
International Labor Organization
—included all member states
—promoted “fair and humane conditions of
labor for men, women, and children”
—the USA joined the ILO in 1934
The Commission for Refugees
 The
League’s Commission for
Refugees was led by Norwegian
explorer Fridtjof Nansen. WWI
had created 1.5 million refugees
and 500 thousand prisoners of
war in need of repatriation or
resettlement. By 1923, the
Commission for Refugees had
helped 425,000 prisoners of war
to return home to 26 different
countries. The Commission for
Refugees established camps in
Turkey in 1922 to aid the country
with an ongoing refugee crisis,
helping to prevent disease and
hunger. It also established the
Nansen passport for stateless
people.
FRIDTJOF NANSEN EATING WITH ORPHANS
(KUMAJRI, ARMENIA, 23 JUNE 1925)
The Committee for the Study of
the Legal Status of Women
 The
League’s Committee for the
Study of the Legal Status of
Women was formed in 1935
because of pressure from
women’s organizations
demanding an international
treaty recognizing equal rights
for women. The committee met
twice (in April 1938 and in
January 1939), before being
disbanded.
ELEANOR ROOSEVELT AND SHIRLEY TEMPLE (1938)
The Committee on Intellectual Cooperation
 The
League’s Committee on Intellectual Cooperation was led by French
philosopher Henri Bergson. The work of the Committee on Intellectual
Cooperation included: inquiring into the conditions of intellectual life;
assisting countries where intellectual life was endangered; creating
national committees for intellectual cooperation; cooperating with
international intellectual organizations;
protecting intellectual property;
facilitating inter-university cooperation;
coordinating bibliographical work and
international interchange of publications;
encouraging international cooperation in
archaeological research; and promoting
the cinema as a means for international
HENRI BERGSON
communication.
The Economic and Financial Organization
 The
League’s Economic and Financial Organization sought to resolve
the economical and financial problems created by WWI. It facilitated the
circulation of goods and funds, assisting Austria, Hungary, Greece, and
Bulgaria. It collected statistics on double taxation, tax evasion, the
treatment of foreign workers and enterprises, international industrial
agreements, trade policy, restrictions
on imports and exports and indirect
protectionism, and smuggling generally
as well as the illegal manufacture and
sale of alcohol particularly. The Economic
and Financial Organization advocated
the unification of customs nomenclature,
GERMAN WOMAN BUYING A CABBAGE
bills of exchange, statistical methods,
WITH A BASKET OF BANK NOTES (C. 1920)
and veterinary medicines.
The Health Organization
 The
League’s Health Organization consisted of the Health Bureau,
containing permanent officials of the League, the General Advisory
Council, an executive section consisting of medical experts, and the
Health Committee, whose purpose was to conduct inquiries, to oversee
the operation of the League’s health
work, and to prepare reports to be
presented to the Council. It focused
on ending leprosy, and it started an
international campaign to exterminate
mosquitoes to fight yellow fever and
malaria. The Health Organization
also worked successfully with the
MISSION OF LATIN AMERICAN HEALTH OFFICERS
TO THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS (1924)
government of the USSR to prevent
typhus epidemics.
The International Labor Organization
 The
League’s International Labor
Organization was directed by
French socialist Albert Thomas.
Each League member sent a
four-person delegation to the
ILO: a representative of the
working class, a business
representative, and two
government representatives. The
ILO successfully restricted the
addition of lead to paint but was
less successful at convincing
members to adopt an eight-hour
workday and a forty-eight-hour
work week. The ILO lobbied with
little success to end child labor,
to increase the rights of women
in the work-place, and to make
shipowners liable for accidents.
ALBERT THOMAS AND SHIPOWNERS
(GENOA, JUNE 1920)
The Organization for Communication
and Transit
 The
League’s Organization for
Communication and Transit held
conferences in Barcelona in
1921 and in Geneva in 1923 to
conclude conventions on the
international regulation of
maritime ports, waterways, and
railroads. The Organization for
Communication and Transit
provided technical assistance to
the League’s member states as
well as help with the arbitration
of disputes concerning transit.
REPORT ON PASSPORT CONFERENCE (1926)
The Permanent Central Opium Board
 The
League’s Permanent Central Opium Board supervised the
collection of statistics necessary to implement the control of the
production, manufacture, trade, and retailing of opium and its byproducts, creating a system of compulsory import certificates and
export authorizations for the legal international trade in narcotics.
ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON THE
TRAFFIC OF OPIUM (1938)
The Permanent Mandate Commission
 The
League’s Permanent Mandate Commission protected British and
French colonialism, rationalizing imperialism with the racist argument
that “advanced nations” had a duty to exercise guardianship over
primitive people unable
“to stand alone.” The
mandates included the
former territories of the
Ottoman Empire, the
former German colonies,
and territories in Southwest Africa and the
South Pacific, and the
League also governed
the Free City of Danzig
THE MANDATE SYSTEM (C. 1926)
(Gdańsk) and the Saar.
The Slavery Commission (and the Advisory
Committee on the Traffic in Women and Children)
 The
League’s Slavery Commission sought to eradicate slavery and
slave trading across the world, and fought forced prostitution. The
Slavery Commission pressed for the end of slavery in the League’s
mandates, and it worked with Liberia to abolish forced labor and
intertribal slavery and Tanganyika to reduce the death rate of railroad
construction workers from 55 to 4 percent.
The Slavery Commission kept records on
slavery, prostitution, and the trafficking of
women and children. Partly because of
League pressure, Afghanistan abolished
slavery in 1923, Iraq in 1924, Nepal in
1926, Transjordan and Persia in 1929,
Bahrain in 1937, and Ethiopia in 1942.
FEMALE CONVICT WORK CREW
(DAR ES SALAAM, TANGANYIKA, C. 1927)
The League, however, failed to entirely
eradicate slavery.
Members of the League of Nations
 Sixty-two
nations and the British
Empire were represented at the
League of Nations between 1920
and 1946; yearly membership,
however, fluctuated as nations
joined, withdrew, or were
annexed (ceased to be nations).
 The USA did not join the League
but joined the International Labor
Organization in 1934.
 Germany joined the League in
1926 but withdrew in 1933.
 The USSR joined the League in
1934 but was expelled in 1939.
 Britain
and France (including
Free France) were the only
permanent Council members
who served from 1920 to 1946.
 The other permanent Council
members were Japan (1920 to
1933), Italy (1920 to 1937),
Lebanon (1926 to 1933),
Germany (1926 to 1933), and
the USSR (1934 to 1939).
 The limited participation of the
USA, Germany, and the USSR
weakened the League, making
failure inevitable.
The Gap in the Bridge
LEONARD RAVEN-HILL, PUNCH (10 DECEMBER1919)
PEACE-KEEPING AND DISARMAMENT IN THE 1920S
 In
the 1920s, the League of
Nations was involved in settling
territorial disputes.
 The Åland Islands, populated by
a Swedish-speaking people, are
in the Baltic Sea, between
Sweden and Finland. In 1809,
Russia defeated Sweden in the
Finish War, claiming the Åland
Islands. In 1917, during the
Bolshevik Revolution, Finland
declared its independence from
Russia, but the Åland Islanders
wanted to join Sweden. By 1920,
the dispute had escalated to the
point that there was danger of
war. In June 1921, the League
intervened, deciding the Åland
Islands were to remain a demilitarized part of Finland. With
Sweden’s reluctant agreement,
this became the first international
agreement concluded directly
through the League.
THE ÅLAND ISLANDS
 After
WWI, Poland claimed
Upper Silesia, a Prussian
territory. The Treaty of Versailles
called for a plebiscite to resolve
the conflict between Germany
and Poland. Before the plebiscite
was held, Poles in Upper Silesia
launched two uprisings (in 1919
and in 1920).A third uprising took
place after the 20 March 1921
plebiscite, in which 59.6 percent
of the population voted to unite
with Germany. The League
intervened, deciding, in May
1922, to divide Upper Silesia,
giving most of the land to
Germany but the majority of the
region’s mineral resources and
much of its industry to Poland.
Bitter resentment was expressed
in Germany, but the treaty was
still ratified by both countries.
UPPER SILESIA
 After
Poland and Lithuania became independent nations during WWI,
Bolshevik Russia attempted to regain its Baltic territories, launching the
Lithuanian-Soviet War (December 1918 to August 1919) and the PolishSoviet War (February 1919 to March 1921). When Lithuania made
peace with Russia, Moscow recognized Lithuanian sovereignty over
Wilno, its traditional capital but a city with a majority Polish population.
Poland, however, seized Wilno, launching the Polish-Lithuanian War
(April 1919 to November 1920). The League negotiated a cease-fire,
requesting Poland to withdraw from Wilno. Poland refused, creating the
Republic of Central Lithuania, a
puppet state it soon annexed.
Lithuania also refused to be
governed by the League, seizing
the German port city of Memel in
January 1923. On 14 March 1924,
the League acted to normalize the
situation, ceding Wilno to Poland
MEMEL (KLAIPĖDA) AND WILNO (VILNIUS)
and Memel to Lithuania.
 After
WWI, the boundaries
of Albania were left
undecided. In September
1921, Yugoslav forces
confronted Albanian
tribesmen in northern
Albania. In November
1921, the League decided
that the frontiers of Albania
should be the same as
they had been in 1913,
with three minor changes
that favored Yugoslavia.
Yugoslav forces withdrew
a few weeks later, albeit
under protest.
ALBANIA
 In
1923, the Conference of
Ambassadors of the Principal
Allied and Associated Powers
sent an Italian delegation to mark
out the boundary between
Albania and Greece. While
conducting the work, Italian
General Enrico Tellini and four of
his assistants were ambushed
and killed on 24 August 1923.
Italy demanded an investigation
and 50 million Greek lire in
reparations, occupying the Greek
island of Corfu. Greece appealed
to the League, arguing that Italy
had broken the Covenant. The
identities of the murderers were
never discovered, but the
League and the Conference of
Ambassadors ordered Greece to
pay Italy the 50 million lire, after
which Italy withdrew from Corfu.
CORFU
 Britain,
who had been awarded a
League of Nations mandate over
Iraq in 1920, claimed Mosul
belonged to Iraq; Turkey claimed
the province as part of its historic
heartland. In 1924, the League
investigated, concluding that the
Kurdish people of Mosul did not
want to be part of either Turkey
or Iraq, but if they had to choose,
they would pick Iraq. Turkey
appealed the finding to the
Permanent Court of International
Justice, which also ruled in favor
of Iraq. Britain, Iraq and Turkey
ratified a treaty on 5 June 1926
that mostly followed the decision
of the League, assigning Mosul
to Iraq.
MOSUL
 On
19 October 1925, a Bulgarian
soldier killed a Greek soldier at
the Belasitsa border crossing.
Greece demanded the
punishment of those responsible,
an official apology, and 2 million
French francs in reparations,
occupying Petrich to enforce its
demands, killing more than 50
Bulgarian civilians in the
process. Bulgaria appealed to
the League. The League ordered
a cease-fire, Greek troops to
withdraw from Bulgaria, and
Greece to pay Bulgaria £45
thousand. Both countries
accepted the decision, although
Greece complained about the
disparity between its treatment
and that of Italy in the Corfu
Incident of 1923, since the
decision showed that there were
two different rules in the League,
one for the Great Powers, like
Italy, and another for smaller
nations, like Greece.
Bulgaria
Incident at Petrich /
War of the Stray Dog
Greece
BULGARIA
 In
1928, oil was discovered in
the foothills of the Andes at the
western extremity of the Chaco,
an area taken by Bolivia from
Paraguay in the 1880s.
Paraguay reacted to the
discovery of oil in its occupied
territory with violent indignation,
not being prepared to lose its
opportunity for economic
development. Royal Dutch Shell
backed Paraguay and Standard
Oil supported Bolivia. An
exchange of sporadic raids and
skirmishes commenced. The
League of Nations carried on a
series of desultory negotiations
but was unable to prevent a
disastrous war breaking out in
1932. Paraguay won through war
what it could not win through
negotiations, albeit at great cost.
BOLIVIA
 A significant
amount of the
League’s time and energy in the
1920s was devoted to
disarmament, even though many
member governments were
uncertain that extensive
disarmament was possible or
even desirable.
 The League set up a special
commission in 1926 to prepare
for a World Disarmament
Conference, which was held in
the 1930s.
 In preparation for the World
Disarmament Conference,
France and the USA sponsored
the Kellogg-Briand Pact, signed
by Germany on 27 August 1928
and by most other nations soon
thereafter. The Kellogg-Briand
Pact renounced the use of war
and called for the peaceful
settlement of disputes.
ARISTIDE BRIAND, MYRON MERRICK, AND
FRANK BILLINGS KELLOGG (PARIS, 1928)
“PLEASSE, MISS, I HAF LEARNT DER LESSON. MAY I GET DOWN?”
DAVID LOW, THE STAR (26 MARCH 1925)
 The
World Disarmament Conference fell apart because Germany
demanded the right of parity with the other Great Powers. When the
League refused Germany’s demand, Germany withdrew from the
League of Nations on 14 October 1933.
THE CONFERENCE
EXCUSES ITSELF
DAVID LOW
EVENING STANDARD
(23 MAY 1934)
“MY FRIENDS, WE HAVE
FAILED. WE JUST
COULDN’T CONTROL
YOUR WARLIKE
PASSIONS.”
SIGNS OF RETURNING PROSPERITY, DAVID LOW, EVENING STANDARD (9 OCTOBER 1933)
ARMS RACKET: “A GRATIFYING INCREASE IN EMPLOYMENT IS REPORTED FROM THE ARMAMENT AND ALLIED INDUSTRIES.”
STATESMAN: “WELL DONE, SIR. ENGLAND IS PROUD OF YOU!”
THE GREAT SLUMP AND THE RISE OF FASCISM
 The
world economic breakdown (1929-1933) had a profound effect on
the history of international relations in the twentieth century, causing
The Times (London) to editorialize, “Next to war, unemployment has
been the most widespread, the most insidious, and the most corroding
malady of our generation: it is the specific social disease of Western
civilization in our time” (23 January 1943). The epicenter of economic
breakdown was the USA (29 October 1929), and the breakdown spread
worldwide wherever the economy was based on market transactions
(thus, the USSR avoided it). The Great Slump gave rise to fascism in
Germany, Italy, and Japan, which led to WWII.
 “Self-correcting” economic fluctuations of various lengths, often very
severe, are integral parts of all capitalist economies. A trade cycle of
boom and bust occurred every 7 to 11 years in the nineteenth century,
while, in the 1920s, Russian economist N. D. Kondratiev identified a
longer series of waves of 50 to 60 years in the capitalist economy. The
world economy was due for a downturn after WWI, but the downturn
was so severe that the capitalist system appeared to have collapsed:
the cycle of growth and contraction appeared to break, as the economy
entered a permanent, vicious, downward spiral, despite accelerating
technological progress (notably, in plastics, in the cinema, and in
magazine publishing).
 The US economy was the cause of the Great Slump and its principal
victim, but the political roots of the economic breakdown were
European. The reparations imposed on Germany by the Treaty of
Versailles, finally fixed at 132 billion Gold Marks in 1921, was
fantastically high, leading to endless debates and periodic crises and
settlements under American auspices, since the USA linked the
reparations issue to Britain and France’s wartime debts to the USA—
almost as crippling as Germany’s reparations bill. Moreover, Germany
was kept weak by European demands that reparations be paid in cash,
requiring Germany to borrow money, rather than in the production of
goods that would have strengthened the German economy.
 Even
though the USA was the center of the global economy in the
1920s, the US economy did not much need the rest of the world, so the
USA did not act as a global stabilizer. The USA did not need to import
capital or labor, and it imported fewer commodities as it industrialized,
with the exception of some vital raw materials. US exports, such as
Hollywood movies, contributed little to the US economy.
 In the USA, the expansion of consumer credit was used to increase
demand artificially and temporarily. Automobile purchasers alone owed
$1,400 million out of a total personal indebtedness of $6,500 million in
short- and medium-term loans. Rich Americans turned to speculation to
increase their wealth, and speculation resulted in a stock market crash,
a bank run, and a depression. Automobile production in the USA halved
between 1929 and 1931; the production of gramophone records
virtually ceased.
 Globally, in the 1920s, wages did not rise with increases in productivity,
resulting in a growing wealth gap, weak demand, and overproduction.
 Economic
growth during the Great Slump did not cease; it slowed
down. From 1913 to 1938, world industrial production grew by 80
percent—half of what it had grown from 1888 to 1913. Per capita
economic growth in the USA from 1913 to 1938 was only 0.8 percent
per year. While unemployment in the Great Slump exceeded one-third
of the workforce, for more than half of the population, standards of living
improved.
 The one important negative indicator, besides unemployment, which
grew in the Great Slump, was globalization. The integration of the world
economy stagnated or regressed. Migration, international capital
investment and lending, and world trade were reduced to a trickle, as
each state did its best to protect its economy against threats from
outside, against a world economy that was visibly in major trouble.
 The immediate post-war boom of 1919 collapsed in 1920. British
unemployment in the 1920s never fell much below 10 percent. In
Europe in the 1920s, prosperity remained elusive.
 Most
European nations (and Japan) stabilized their economies between
1922 and 1926 by deflating their currencies, returning to sound
financing and the gold standard. But in Germany, by 1923, the currency
had fallen to one million millionth of its 1913 value. This meant private
savings in Germany disappeared, making the Germany economy
entirely reliant on foreign loans and particularly vulnerable when the
USA stopped providing those loans during the Great Slump. The
devastation of the lower and middle classes in central Europe made
them ready for fascism.
 By 1924, only the USA, with an unemployment rate of 4 percent,
appeared to be growing, but this growth was deceptive as American
farmers and producers of raw materials suffered catastrophe as prices
dropped significantly. Moreover, American industries stockpiled
commodities, as demand could not keep pace with the capacity to
produce. From 1924 to 1929, unemployment averaged between 10 and
12 percent in Britain, Germany, and Sweden and between 17 and 18
percent in Denmark and Norway.
 From
1929 to 1931, American and German production fell by a third.
There was a crisis in primary production, both of foodstuffs and of raw
materials, as their prices, no longer kept up by building stocks as
before, went into free fall. The price of rice plummeted. The price of tea
fell by two-thirds; silk by three-quarters. The US market for Japanese
silk disappeared. Farmers dependent on the market were ruined. In
Brazil, the price of coffee fell so low that steam railroad engines
switched from burning coal to burning coffee. World trade fell by 60
percent from 1929 to 1932.
 For workers, the result of the Great Slump at its height (1932-33) was
unemployment: 22 to 23 percent in Britain and Belgium, 24 percent in
Sweden, 27 percent in the USA, 29 percent in Austria, 31 percent in
Norway, 32 percent in Denmark, and 44 percent in Germany. And from
1933 to 1938, only Nazi Germany eliminated unemployment, which
remained between 16 and 20 percent in other nations. While the
majority of the workforce was employed and was getting better off, the
political systems of the industrialized countries suffered from the central,
traumatic impact of mass unemployment.
 The
Great Slump radicalized the middle and lower classes politically.
The German Communist Party grew almost as fast as the Nazi Party in
the months before Adolf Hitler’s accession to power. The Communists,
however, made the mistake of underestimating the danger of the far
right, turning their attacks against the liberal left instead, allowing
fascism to triumph in Italy, Japan, and Germany.
 The Great Slump traumatized the upper classes politically because
solutions could not be found within the framework of liberal economics.
Social considerations trumped economic considerations. To meet
immediate, short-term crises, capitalist ruling classes had to undermine
the long-term basis of the world economy. Economic liberalism was
abandoned. Free trade was abandoned. Tariff barriers were raised.
Farmers were given subsidies. Full employment became a policy goal,
as the upper classes adopted the argument of British economist John
Maynard Keynes that demand coming from the incomes of fully
employed workers would have the most stimulating effect on depressed
economies (while also preventing explosive social movements).
 Politically,
the Great Slump led to changes in government. In the USA,
the Republicans fell to the Democrats. In Britain, the Labour Party was
ousted. The almost simultaneous victory of fascist, nationalist, warlike,
and actively aggressive regimes in two major military powers—Japan
(1931) and Germany (1933)—constituted the most far-reaching and
sinister political consequence of the Great Slump. Fascism was
transformed from an Italian movement into a world movement and a
world danger by the Great Slump.
 Fascism, or corporatism, formed the basis of Benito Mussolini’s Italy
(1922 to 1943). Italian corporatism was a top-down model of state
control over the economy, which was collectively managed by
employers, workers, and state officials by formal mechanisms at the
national level. Corporatism was totalitarian, supposedly not as a
coercive system, because it incorporated every divergent interest into
the state. Italian fascism was, and for a long time remained, an anomaly
among radical right-wing movements in its lack of interest in racism,
until it fell into line with Nazi Germany in 1938. Socially, Italian fascism
provided a new version of the triumphant counter-revolution.
 Mussolini
(1932): “The Fascist conception of the State is all-embracing;
outside of it no human or spiritual values can exist, much less have
value. Thus understood, Fascism is totalitarian, and the Fascist State—
a synthesis and a unit inclusive of all values—interprets, develops, and
potentiates the whole life of a people…. Fascism attacks the whole
complex of democratic ideologies and rejects them both in their
theoretical premises and in their applications or practical manifestations.
Fascism denies that the majority, through the mere fact of being a
majority, can rule human societies; it denies that this majority can
govern by means of a periodical consultation; it affirms the irremediable,
fruitful and beneficent inequality of men, who cannot be leveled by such
a mechanical and extrinsic fact as universal suffrage…. The Fascist
State lays claim to rule in the economic field no less than in others; it
makes its action felt throughout the length and breadth of the country by
means of its corporate, social, and educational institutions, and all the
political, economic, and spiritual forces of the nation, organized in their
respective associations, circulate within the State….
…Fascism, the more it considers and observes the future and the
development of humanity quite apart from political considerations of the
moment, believes neither in the possibility nor in the utility of perpetual
peace. It thus repudiates the doctrine of Pacifism—born of a
renunciation of the struggle and an act of cowardice in the face of
sacrifice. War alone brings up to its highest tension all human energy
and puts the stamp of nobility upon the peoples who have courage to
meet it.”
 Mussolini inspired Adolf Hitler, and Hitler never failed to acknowledge
Italian inspiration and priority. During Germany’s hyperinflation, on 8
November 1923, Hitler led an abortive coup in Munich—the Beer Hall
Putsch—resulting in his arrest and imprisonment. German business
interests did not support Hitler’s extremely anti-Jewish form of fascism,
preferring a more orthodox conservatism, and when the German
economy improved in 1924, Hitler’s National Social Workers’ Party won
only 2.5 to 3 percent of the electorate in the elections of 1928.
 By
1930, the Nazis captured 18 percent of the vote, and by 1932, the
Nazis became the strongest political party with over 37 percent of the
vote. The Great Slump turned Hitler from a phenomenon of the political
fringe into the potential, and eventually the actual, master of the
country.
 Fascism held four major advantages for business over other regimes.
First, fascism eliminated, defeated, and defended against left-wing
social revolution. Second, fascism eliminated labor unions and other
limitations on the rights of management to manage the workforce, and
fascism authoritatively justified the totalitarian control that bosses and
business executives applied to their subordinates in their own
businesses. Third, fascism secured an unduly favorable solution to the
Great Slump for business. In the USA, the top 5 percent of consuming
units between 1929 and 1941 saw their share of total (national) income
fall by 20 percent, but in Germany, the top 5 percent gained 15 percent
during the comparable period. Fourth, fascism was good at dynamically
modernizing industrial economies (although not as good at adventurous
and long-term techno-scientific planning).
 Nazi
Germany, ruthlessly determined to get rid of unemployment at all
costs, recovered quickly from the Great Slump. In fact, Hitler dealt with
the Great Slump rapidly and more successfully than any other leader.
Hitler’s success appeared to confirm the success of Mussolini’s Italy
and to turn fascism into a powerful global political current. The
successful policy of aggressive militarist expansionism by Italy and
Germany—reinforced by that of Japan, whose economy reached almost
twice its pre-slump level of production by 1939—dominated the
international politics of the 1930s.
 Characteristics of European fascism found homegrown echoes in
Japan, creating strong affinities among the dominant ideologies of Italy,
Germany, and Japan. The Japanese were second to none in their
conviction of racial superiority, in their need for racial purity, and in their
beliefs in the military virtues of self-sacrifice, absolute obedience to
orders, self-abnegation, and stoicism. The soldiers in Japan’s Imperial
Army would have subscribed to the motto of Hitler’s paramilitary
Schutzstaffel: “Meine Ehre ist Treue” (honor means blind subordination).
 Japan
was a society of rigid hierarchy, of the total dedication of the
Japanese to the nation and its divine emperor, utterly rejecting the
concepts of liberty, equality, and fraternity. The Japanese had the
capacity to combine barbaric behavior with a sophisticated aesthetic
sensibility. The Japanese had no need to import European fascism, and
they had no difficulty in understanding European fascism. Yet, members
of Japan’s ultra-nationalist terror groups that assassinated Japan’s
insufficiently patriotic politicians, Japanese military leaders that
conquered and enslaved the Koreans and the Chinese, and Japanese
diplomats in Italy and Germany, campaigned for closer identification
with European fascism.
THE MANCHURIA CRISIS AND THE ABYSSINIA CRISIS
Italian and Japanese Dissatisfaction
 Both
Japan and Italy, though on
the winning side in WWI, felt
dissatisfied. Italy had come out
of the war with considerable
territorial gains in the Alps, on
the Adriatic Sea, and in the
Aegean Sea, even if not quite
with all the booty promised to the
state by the Allies in return for
joining their side in 1915. The
triumph of fascism, a counterrevolutionary, ultra-nationalist,
and imperialist movement,
underlined the dissatisfaction of
Italians, whose imperial appetite
greatly exceeded their power to
satisfy it. As for Japan, its very
considerable military and naval
force made it into the most
formidable power in the Far East,
especially since Russia had
withdrawn. The Washington
Naval Agreement of 1922, which
ended British naval supremacy
by establishing a formula of 5:5:3
for the strength of the US,
British, and Japanese navies
respectively, recognized this.
 Japan,
whose industrialization
was advancing at express
speed—even though in absolute
size the economy was still quite
modest—2.5 percent of world
industrial production in the late
1920s—undoubtedly felt that it
deserved a rather larger slice of
the Far Eastern cake than the
white imperial powers granted it.
Moreover, Japan was acutely
conscious of the vulnerability of a
country that lacked virtually all
natural resources needed for a
modern industrial economy,
whose imports were at the mercy
of disruption by foreign navies,
and whose exports were at the
mercy of the US market. Japan’s
military pressured for the
creation of a nearby land empire
in China, arguing that it would
shorten Japanese supply lines
and thus make them less
vulnerable. Japan’s capitalists
sought to colonize and to
industrialize Asia systematically,
developing heavy industries in
Korea (annexed in 1911) and,
after 1931, in Manchuria and
Taiwan, because resource-rich
Asian colonies were sufficiently
close to the geographically small
and raw-material-poor homeland
to serve Japanese national
industrialization directly.
The Mukden Incident
 On
18 September 1931, junior
officers of the Imperial Japanese
Army conspired to dynamite
Japan’s South Manchuria Railway
near Mukden and to blame the
attack on the Chinese as a pretext
for a full-scale Japanese invasion
of Manchuria. Without official
authority, on 19 September 1931,
the junior officers ordered an
attack on the Chinese garrison of
Beidaying; Japan’s government
and military command approved
the successful attack after the fact.
JAPANESE INVASION OF MANCHURIA (1931)
Manchukuo
 By
February 1932, the Japanese
Imperial Army had occupied all
major towns and cities in the
provinces of Liaoning, Jilin, and
Heilongjiang, and in March 1932,
the Japanese government
established the puppet state of
Manchukuo, installing Puyi, the
former emperor of China, as
head of state.
MANCHUKUO: THE NEWBORN EMPIRE (1932)
China’s Appeal to the League of Nations
 The
Chinese Foreign Ministry
issued a strong protest to the
Japanese government and called
for the immediate stop to
Japanese military operations in
Manchuria. China’s central
government turned to the
international community for a
peaceful resolution, appealing to
the League of Nations. On
October 24 1931, the League of
Nations passed a resolution
mandating the withdrawal of
Japanese troops to be
completed by 16 November
1931. Japan, however, rejected
the League’s resolution and
insisted on direct negotiations
with the Chinese government.
Intermittent negotiations went on
without much result.
 On 14 January 1932, a League
of Nations commission, headed
by Victor Bulwer-Lytton, arrived
in Shanghai to investigate the
situation.
MEMBERS OF THE LEAGUE'S COMMISSION OF INQUIRY
IN THE FAR EAST ARRIVING AT HANKOW, CHINA (1932)
 On
2 October 1932, the League
published the Lytton Report,
rejecting the Japanese claim that
the Manchurian invasion and
occupation was an act of selfdefense—although it did not
accuse the Japanese of
perpetrating the initial bombing
of the railroad. The League
ascertained that Manchukuo was
the product of Japanese military
aggression in China. While
recognizing Japan’s legitimate
concerns in Manchuria because
of its economic ties there, the
League refused to acknowledge
Manchukuo as an independent
nation. Consequently, Japan
resigned from the League of
Nations on 27 March 1933.
“SOMEBODY IS TRYING TO SPOIL THE WHOLE DAM WAR”
DAVID LOW, EVENING STANDARD (03 MARCH 1933)
“THE LEAGUE WILL DISCUSS ECONOMIC AND FINANCIAL PRESSURE.”
 The
League of Nations
responded to Japanese
defiance with moral
condemnation. Britain
and France were
financially and militarily
unprepared to go to war
with Japan. Economic
sanctions would have
been ineffective
because Japan’s main
trading partner was the
USA, and the USA,
while not recognizing
Manchukuo, interpreted
the 1921 Washington
Naval Conference as
guaranteeing a certain
degree of Japanese hegemony in the Far
East. Further, members of the League did
not want to antagonize Japan by enacting
an arms embargo. In the face of the
League’s first serious challenge, it buckled
and capitulated.
“THE DOORMAT”
DAVID LOW, EVENING STANDARD (19 JANUARY 1933)
The Walwal Incident
 In
1930, Italy built a fort at the
Walwal Oasis on Ethiopian
territory. On 22 November 1934,
a force of 1,000 Ethiopian militia
requested that the Walwal
garrison of 60 Dubats—whiteturbaned Somali mercenaries
employed by the Italian Royal
Corps of Colonial Troops—
withdraw to Italian Somaliland.
The Ethiopians repeatedly
menaced the Italian garrison with
the threat of an armed attack,
and the Italians sent two planes
over the Ethiopian camp with
some machine-gun fire. In the
first week of December, a battle
broke out in which the Ethiopians
killed nearly all of the ItalianSomali soldiers.
SECOND ITALO–
ABYSSINIAN WAR
 On
6 December 1934, the
Emperor of Ethiopia, Haile
Selassie, protested Italian
aggression at Walwal. Italian
Prime Minister Benito Mussolini
responded by demanding an
apology (8 December) and
compensation (11 December).
On 3 January 1935, Ethiopia
appealed to the League of
Nations for arbitration of the
dispute arising from the Walwal
Incident, but the League’s
response was inconclusive: an
investigation by the League’s
Arbitration Committee absolved
both parties of any culpability.
 In
February 1935, Mussolini
began sending large numbers of
troops to Eritrea and to Italian
Somaliland, Italian colonies on
Ethiopia’s northeast and
southeast borders, respectively.
EMPEROR HAILE SELASSIE SPEAKING
AT THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS (7 JUNE 1936)
Ethiopia’s Appeal to the League of Nations
 In
March, in response to the
Italian military build-up, Ethiopia
again appealed to the League for
help, and the Italians yielded to
pressure from the League to
submit the dispute to arbitration
but continued to mobilize its
troops in the region. Ethiopia
again protested the ongoing
Italian mobilization. On 20 May,
the League of Nations held a
special session to discuss the
crisis in Ethiopia but again failed
to take action.
“THE JAP IN THE VASE”
SIDNEY “GEORGE” STRUBE, DAILY EXPRESS
(29 NOVEMBER 1935)
 Britain
and France were willing to
sacrifice Ethiopia to keep Italy in
an alliance against Germany.
Therefore, they did not close the
Suez Canal, under their control,
to Italy. France gave Italy a free
hand in dealing with Ethiopia in
the Franco-Italian Agreement of
7 January 1935, and Britain
allowed Italy unhindered access
to eastern Africa, clearing its
warships from the Mediterranean
Sea. On 25 July, Britain imposed
an embargo on arms sales both
to Italy and to Ethiopia, harming
the weaker Ethiopia more than
the stronger Italy.
 On
3 October 1935, Italian
armed forces invaded Ethiopia
without a declaration of war,
prompting Ethiopia to declare
war on Italy.
THE ABYSSINIA CRISIS (22 SEPTEMBER 1960)
 On
7 October 1935, the League
declared Italy to be an aggressor
and started the slow process of
imposing sanctions on Italy. The
League’s sanctions, however, did
not prohibit the provision of
several vital materials, such as
oil. Nor did all members of the
League impose the sanctions.
The USA, exasperated by the
League’s failure to act, actually
increased its exports to Italy,
while Britain and France did not
take any serious action against
Italy. Even Italy’s use of chemical
weapons and other actions that
violated international agreements
did little to change the League’s
passive approach to the
situation.
ITALIAN SOLDIERS AND MUSTARD GAS BOMB (C. 1935)
 In
December 1935, British
Foreign Minister Samuel Hoare
and French Foreign Minister
Pierre Laval bypassed the
League, secretly proposing to
give Italy large areas of Ethiopia
in exchange for ending the war
and for maintaining the antiGerman alliance. Mussolini
agreed to the Hoare-Laval Plan,
but public outrage in Britain and
France, when details of the
secret plan leaked, forced both
Hoare and Laval to resign.
Britain and France were publicly
condemned for abandoning the
League’s principles.
PIERRE LAVAL AND BENITO MUSSOLINI
(7 JANUARY 1935)
 Reich
Chancellor Adolf Hitler of
Germany took advantage of
the Abyssinian crisis to
remilitarize the Rhineland,
causing Britain and France to
reaffirm their willingness to
sacrifice Ethiopia for their antiGerman alliance with Italy,
allowing Mussolini to prosecute
the Second Italo-Abyssinian
War relatively unchallenged by
the rest of Europe. On 2 May
1936, Selassie fled Ethiopia to
exile, but Ethiopia never
officially surrendered to Italy.
Italy then merged Ethiopia with
its other African colonies that
became Italian East Africa.
 On
7 June 1936, Selassie spoke at
the League of Nations in Geneva to
appeal for redress, but the League
took no action other than to drop
the sanctions against Italy.
“RESTORATION OF CONFIDENCE”
DAVID LOW, EVENING STANDARD (5 JUNE 1936)
DIPLOMATIC OLD GUARD: “I CAN ASSURE YOUR MAJESTY
THAT THE LEAGUE IS GOING TO DO SOMETHING JUST AS
SOON AS IT CAN SECURE THE COOPERATION OF MUSSOLINI.”
 Italy
withdrew from the League of
Nations on 11 December 1937.
 While the League conducted
worthwhile humanitarian activities
in the 1920s and 1930s, it had
few successes in terms of peacekeeping. The League provided a
veil for ongoing British and
French imperialism through its
Mandates Commission, while
hypocritically condemning
German, Italian, and Japanese
aggression. The League took no
action against British and French
imperialism, and it took no
effective action against German,
Italian, and Japanese aggression.
MURAL DEPICTING HOPE AND THE OVERTHROW OF WAR
(PALAIS DES NATIONS, GENEVA)